Alinea's Grant Achatz Battles Cancer
Today's Wall Street Journal provides an update on Alinea's Grant Achatz and his battle against cancer. He was recently found to have cancer of the mouth and is following an alternative treatment in the hopes of saving his tongue (and sense of taste) and life:
Saving his tongue hinges on whether a team of doctors at the University of Chicago can cure the cancer using an atypical method of treatment. Instead of the standard therapy—removing the tumor surgically, followed by radiation and chemotherapy—his doctors are starting with a course of chemotherapy that adds a drug called cetuximab to two more conventional drugs. Then they will follow that with a combination of radiation therapy, more chemotherapy, and drugs.
Achatz still spends many hours in Alinea's kitchen, and is optimistic about his recovery.
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3 Comments:
Of course I wish Grant Achatz the best, but I do wish the food press would stop with the "facing his worst fears" headlines.
Is this really Mr. Achatz &mdash a father and husband as well as a chef &mdash his worst fear? I have yet to read him say this is the case.
Obviously his condition could be professionally devastating and I'm not suggesting otherwise. It is a dramatic story without dramatically calling it his worse fear.
nickb at 5:57PM on 08/31/07
Can we indulge in some speculation here?
Taste is but one of the seven senses.
Can a fine chef run a fine kitchen relying on his/her other senses?
Of course a chefs' skills must extend beyond the ability to cook a tasty dish.
Certainly, I've dined, happily, on food that looked better than it tasted...
How far can we go with this?
beano at 1:43PM on 09/01/07
@beano: Indeed, Thomas Keller admitted to never having tasted his signature Oysters and Pearls dish. He explained that he knew it was good — "you don't have to stick you hand in fire to know it's hot."
nickb at 11:13PM on 09/01/07